I wish these editors (or whoever is doing this manipulation) get the permission of their nominees before they seek this type of PR by “stuffing the nominations box”. It can be profoundly embarrassing! When I was surprised to see my name all over the Harvey nominations last year, I knew there was something afoot… I mean, in Finland or Norway or Italy, etc. maybe… but not in America. Not to mention the lasting shame of that year in the CBG awards where there *was* organized ballot-box-stuffing. No creator wants to look like maybe he was involved in such a scheme by his publisher/editor or anyone else. I actively tried to persuade Paul to remove all my nominations from the Harvey ballots, but he politely declined. And for fear of some other unknowable plan, I was at an Orioles game on the night of the Harvey Awards.

When there is some sort of manipulation of awards going on, please don’t assume the nominees have any involvenment!

(And hey, I shouldn’t have ever gotten ANY Eisner or Harvey nominations or awards anyhow — my work is all reprints from Europe! I should only have been eligible in the “Best Edition of International Material” categories.)

Best Publication Design:Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! designed by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)Comic Book Tattoo, designed by Tom Muller, art direction by Rantz Hoseley (Image)Hellboy Library Editions, designed by Cary Grazzini and Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)What It Is, designed by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)Willie and Joe, designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics)

Best Comics-Related Book:Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, by Todd DePastino (Norton)Brush with Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens, edited by Arnie and Cathy Fenner (Underwood)Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (First Second)Kirby: King of Comics, by Mark Evanier (Abrams)The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu (Picador/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)